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A town in Bavaria called Wildpoldsried (pop. 2,600) produces 500% more energy than it needs through renewable energy systems and sells the surplus power back to the grid. Wildpoldsried offers a preview of what’s in store for all of Germany over the

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There is an excellent New Yorker article that interviewed the residents of Samsø-- what worked, what didn't, what drove them over the span of 10 years: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/07/07/the-island-in-the-wind

“We always hear that we should think globally and act locally... I understand what that means—I think we as a nation should be part of the global consciousness. But each individual cannot be part of that. So ‘Think locally, act locally’ is the key message for us.”- Søren Hermansen, head of the Samsø renewable energy island project.

“People on Samsø started thinking about energy,” Ingvar Jørgensen, a farmer who heats his house with solar hot water and a straw-burning furnace, told me. “It became a kind of sport.”